206 MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

showing* clearly that juvenile delinquency (one
of the most terrible of America's problems)
tends to be lowest in those parts of the city which
are nearest to supervised playgrounds (not to
neglected ones) and highest in the parts which
are so far away from the playgrounds that the
children cannot get access to them—a statistical
fact which other nations, accustomed to muddling
through and impatient of statistics, might take
note of to their advantage.

Let the same nations note also that all the
executive positions of the Recreation Commission,
except that of the Superintendent (a lady), are
recognized as belonging to the Civil Service of
the State and that every $ 100 of the City assess-
ment is subject to a tax of not less than seven
cents per annum for the support of recrea-
tion*

This tax, I will say in passing, varies in different
cities, and in some which I have visited the
economic disaster has caused its suspension.
But, again and again, I have heard governors of
States and mayors of cities, when taking the
chair for me at public meetings, declare in
emphatic terms " that there is no public money
raised and spent in the United States to-day that
gives better results." In one city, virtually
bankrupt, I heard the mayor say " that while
many citizens in that city thought that recreation
was the first thing to cut out of the city budget,
he, on his part, was determined that it should